We had a wonderful New Year's eve party here at Birdsfoot, dancing in the kitchen till 2am. I had to milk the next morning, but Carol is easy and did not mind a 10am milking. I am making lots of cheese. I got tickets to Germany for February, after the organic farming conference in Saratoga, a highlight hanging out and taking workshops from and for organic farmers. So this week it is CSA delivery and seed orders. I like the seeds to come in before I go away for a month to reorder if one company is out. I easily can spent hours in those catalogs, reading about new varieties and crops, looking for a new "pet crop" idea to keep it interesting. Definitely more lime basil this year.

2016 was a better year, even though (or because?) we went to Europe for the month of June. Thank you for your commitment! I have not gone through the numbers where we made money, but not investing into infrastructure for a year helped keeping expenses down.

The Birdsfoot basement is at 36-38 degrees F. My brother built me a monitor/fan contraption that blows in cold outside air if the outside is cooler than the basement and stops if the basement gets to 34 F. We used to read the thermometer in the kitchen, run down and open or close windows to adjust. This is so much easier and with the warmish winter very much needed. So far the veggies are holding up beautifully.

Today I have a recipe from local Yvona Fast's "Garden Gourmet" cook book (by Bloated Toe Publishing). It is going by month through the season with stories and great ways to cook.